At this time of year, millions of people around the world have resolved to lose weight. Sadly, most of them will fail.

One of the main reasons why so many of us are unable to lose excess bodyfat is night-time snacking.

During the day, we are able to eat healthy, control our portion size, choose vegetables over starchy carbs and stay away from junk food.

But at night, most of us relax, drop onto the couch, turn on the tv…and say goodbye to our weight-loss willpower.

And nothing wrecks a diet faster than night time snacking while watching tv

A few years ago, I had a client who was having problems with night time snacking. He did everything “right” during the day, but when he finally relaxed at the end of the day, he found himself dealing with major cravings while watching the nightly news.

Most of the time, he drowned his cravings with mugs of steaming hot tea. But as the cravings didn’t lessen over time, we felt that we needed to do something to resist their temptation.

Here’s what we did.

Right before he sat down in front of the tv, I had him perform a single 4-minute Tabata set of Step-Ups using one of the staircases in his home.

And it worked.

We have no idea why it worked – hormones, brain chemicals, recharged willpower – and we didn’t care. All that mattered was that his cravings went away, making it easier for him to achieve his fitness goals.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you 🙂

How to do Tabata Step-Ups

What is Tabata?

Tabata is an exercise protocol in which you exercise as hard as possible for 20 seconds…then rest for 10 seconds…repeating this 7 more times…for a total of 8 x 20 second work sets + 8 x 10 second rest sets = 4 minutes of high intensity exercise.

How do I do Tabata Step-Ups in my home?

You couldn’t find a simpler exercise.

Step 1 : Walk over to a staircase

Step 2: Step Up

Step 3: Step Down

Step 4: Do this as fast as you can for 20 seconds

Step 5: Rest for 10 seconds

Step 6: Repeat Steps 4 & 5 seven more times

Step Up Videos

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Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

It seems like I hear some version of this question each and every day. Just this past weekend, it was posed to me by Angela.

Angela is a forty-something year old woman, with two kids and an executive position at an insurance company.

Angela is 5’6″ and weighs approximately 170 lbs.

Angela doesn’t want to weigh approximately 170 lbs.

Maybe, some of you can sympathize with her story.

Angela’s Story

All the way through high school, Angela was an average, healthy weight. Not thin; healthy. She participated in gym class and enjoyed playing tennis. In university, she fell victim to the dreaded “freshman fifteen”. By the time she graduated, it was more like 20 lbs.

After graduation, she lost most of that weight by exercising at a health club and watching what she ate.

Next came the babies…

After the birth of her two children, Angela found herself reunited with that extra 20 lbs. Throwing herself back into that same exercise and nutrition program, Angela managed to lose most of that 20 lbs….And then gain it all back….and then lose most of it again…..and then gain it all back plus a little bit extra.

This takes us back to the present day.

Angela has 35 lbs. of excess fat that she wants to be rid of.

And she feels completely lost.

She has read every diet book.

She has exercised like an Olympic athlete.

She has cleansed.

She has popped dietary supplements.

She has joined and quit three different diet programs.

Nothing works anymore. So she asks me, “Why can’t I lose weight”?

So Why Can’t She Lose Weight?

The truth is; when it comes to burning off excess body-fat, Angela has no idea what she is doing. But it’s not her fault.

The multi-billion dollar diet industry sets people up for failure. If every dieter was successful, who would buy the next best selling diet book? Who would buy the pills or the bars or the shakes or the… Well, you get the point.

The diet industry promises you easy weight loss. But when you fail, it is always due to your lack of will-power. So why don’t the diet gurus help you generate that will power?

Specifically, we got into a debate about a single cookie she ate while packing her child’s lunch before sending him off to school for the day.

She thought that I was being unreasonable by suggesting that if she wanted to achieve her weight loss goals (15-20 lbs before bikini season), she couldn’t be liberating cookies from her kid’s stash. She said….”it’s only one cookie”

And in theory she was right…it was only one cookie. But in her specific case, she was wrong.

She was wrong because:

The excess bodyfat she is trying to lose is metabolically active…constantly sending chemical signals encouraging over-eating and fat storage

She is insulin resistant…and that cookie will result in a hormonal firestorm leading to cravings for a 2nd cookie…and a grande mocha latte at Starbucks and half a loaf of garlic bread at dinner…

She has established a powerful set of eating habits in the basal ganglia portion of her brain. One of those habits is to sneak a cookie while packing her kid’s lunch. This habit (plus others) has led to her putting on body-fat year after year.

The emotional soothing she gets from that cookie reinforces all of those mental/physical/hormonal signals that have led her to be unhappy with the state of her bod.

At this point in her transformation… it’s never just one cookie. It’s a whole bunch of terribly unfair side effects that will keep her frustrated that she can’t lose weight.

NOTE – In a couple of months, I won’t be such a jerk. We’ll have her hormones under control and she will be able to enjoy eating a cookie with her son again…and still continue losing body-fat.

If you’re new to this series, the following list will highlight different physical activities and tell you how long they will take to burn 500 calories….which is a convenient number because a pound of body fat is 3500 calories and there are 7 days in the week.

And if my Grade 3 math skills are still up to date, 500 calories burned x 7 days in the week = 3500 calories burned per week = 1 pound of body fat burned off per week.

And that’s pretty cool.

THE LIST

Zumba

It will take the average American Male (191 lbs) 62 minutes of Zumbafying to burn 500 calories

It will take the average American Female (164 lbs) 72 minutes of shaking her booty to burn 500 calories

According to a paper published in The Lancet, there will be 65,000,000 more obese Americans by 2030.

And it’s not just the U.S. of A.

Great Britain is aiming to plop another 11,000,000 obese citizens and their accompanying health conditions onto their already overburdened National Health Service.

And those health conditions don’t come cheap.

In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that medical costs associated with the treatment of new obesity related disease will increase by $48-66 billion per year. And considering how much of that cost will be borne by the American taxpayer, perhaps American politicians should stop mocking Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program and start thinking up better ways to cut the fat.

And here’s why:

The researchers predicted the following impacts for the U.S. by 2030:

Obesity prevalence among men will rise from 32% in 2008 to approximately 50%

Obesity prevalence among women will rise from 35% to between 45% and 52%.

7.8 million extra cases of diabetes

6.8 million more cases of coronary heart disease and stroke

539,000 additional cases of cancer

Annual spending on obesity-related diseases would rise by 13-16%, leading to 2.6% increase in national health spending.

Total medical costs associated with treatment of these preventable diseases are estimated to increase by $48-66 billion/year.

For the U.K., researchers predicted the following developments by 2030:

Prevalence of obesity among men would increase from 26% to between 41—48%.

Prevalence of obesity among women would increase from 26% to 35-43%.

668 000 more cases of diabetes

461,000 more cases of heart disease and stroke

139,000 additional cases of cancer.

In the U.K., annual spending on obesity-related health would increase even more rapidly than in the U.S. due to its older population, rising 25%.

Conclusion

The next 20 years are going to be a great time to be a bariatric surgeon.

Adjust the settings as you see fit. I recommend that you either make the site public OR make private with password protectionif and only if you send the url & password to at least 5 people who are willing to keep you honest while you are trying to diet. You really need that threat of someone checking out your diet/food log to keep you from cheating.

I also adjusted my settings so that only I can post, but that logged in visitors can comment.

Alright, now that your site is set up – what’s next?

Take a picture of your next meal with a) your mobile phone or b) your digital camera

If you used your phone – email that picture to yourwebsitename@posterous.com. In my case, I would email it to myphotodietfoodlog@posterous.com. You can also send the image via SMS text.

If you don’t have a mobile phone, take a pic with your digital camera, upload it to your computer and email that image to yourwebsitename@posterous.com via your computer.

Obviously, the mobile phone option is much, much better.

Now what?

Now you take a picture of everything you eat before you eat it.

Email it to your photo diet/food log

And get ready to lose weight

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And if you need help with your diet/exercise program, there is a bunch of new articles in the pipeline.